Many links in the chain of successful livestock production exist todaY. Each link or step is conducted in the geographic area which best utilizes the natural resources of the country. The cow-calf and the stocker-feeder operations are not usually adjacent to the confined finishing and slaughter processing facilities.
The cow-calf and stocker-feeder operations are by necessity located in the areas of open range and utilize roughages on lands which in general are not suited to intense agriculture food grain production, or they are adjacent to agriculture utilizing non-edible by-products of other grain and crop production.
The finishing-processing operations are usually near a bountiful supply of feed grains and near the slaughter processing facilities.
This geographic dislocation brings about multiple ownership throughout the red-meat food chain for cattle. It necessitates moving the livestock great distances, sometimes over thousands of miles from the grower areas to the finishing and processing areas. The geographic distribution of the stocker-feeder set the stage for many varying levels of animal husbandry and a great variance range in nutrition adequacy and/or deficiencies.
The net result is animals arriving to finishing facilities with all degrees of adequate and inadequate nutrition and the resulting nutrient levels of their tissues.
Shipping and handling stress coming at this time aggravates the deficiencies already existing and can cause other or increase deficiencies in the host animal and the rumen microbes.
This stress comes at a most inopportune time, the period of "Lot Adaptation", the period of least resistance and the period in the feeding program when the animals are challenged to create an immune response to build immunity to protect them during the remaining feeding period. The result is a period of highest disease incidence and animal health problems.
Lot adaptation is also a period of abrupt feed changes and the energy challenge in the feeding program to accomplish the production goals in the least amount of time possible.
The pathologies resulting from the above husbandry procedure are associated with the deficiencies of the geographic area of the source of the cattle, the deficiencies of the host animal and the deficiencies of the microbes of the rumen population must be addressed.
The transportation animal pathologies from stress and lack of food and water in transit are complex and a multiplicity of inner-actions exists.
The loss of energy in transit results in hypoglycemia to the rumen eco-system and the host animal with consistent slight ketosis during re-alimination. This hypoglycemia if not corrected can interfere with antibiotic response if it is needed to treat infectious diseases present.
A pronounced easinepia can exist when visible symptoms of ketosis appear. Hypoglycemia can also cause nervous irritability and further aggravate stress. In transit, loss of energy to the rumen microbes results in rapid depletion of the microbe population, the most pronounced clinical manifestation being loss of digestive functions due to a reduction of the normal cellulotic activity.
The microbial death of the rumen microbe eco-system is more time sensitive to lack of energy and proper nutrients than the death of the host animal. Starvation from inadequate energy begins within hours and fifty percent death can result in thirty to forty hours. Rumen pH of the eco-system increases as does the level of ammonia and lactates in the paunch media.
Long periods of water deprivation or short periods of water deprivation with elevated ambient temperatures results in reduced feed intake, and increased temperature. The body systems respond with corrective measures of blood volume, the kidney reacts conservatively, this results in the excretion of essential minerals as it struggles to maintain a correct osmotic mineral equilibrium in the cells of the host animal.
Mineral pathologies from deficiencies of origin and as a result of transportation and marketing stress exist. The deficiencies can be of the major and/or minor mineral group in animal nutrition and be evident for the rumen microbe population and the host animal.
Protein and vitamin deficiencies exist for the same reasons as listed above and they become evident to the rumen microbes and the host animal. The degrees of pathology developed depends on the severity and length of stress and the lack of adequate nutrition from the geographic area of origin.
Lot adaptation is the most critical husbandry period for the symbiotic-relationship that exists between the microbes of the ruminant and he host ruminant animal. There is no period of time in the feeding period that this symbiotic inter-dependence is more important. The proper and timely return of normal physiologic and peak function is of the most value to the owner for economical and efficient beef production.
Inadequate protein to the host animal can interfere with growth and the immune response.
Inadequate energy and resulting hypoglycemia interferes with appetite, causes clinical and sub-clinical ketosis and the potential lack of response to parenteral antibiotics.
The rumen microbes function in energy utilization, protein synthesis, mineral and vitamin utilization.
Microbial death of the ruminant eco-system will aggravate deficiencies of the host animal and seriously delay or prevent the animal's recovery to a normal state of physiology.
Therefore, any husbandry which interferes with the metabolism of the ruminant microbes will interfere with the metabolism of the host animal.
Conversely, any product which corrects the pathology of the systems of the rumen microbe population and the host, with speed, will hasten the correction of the pathology and return the host animal to an economic producing animal in the least time possible.
This invention involves a feed supplement which can be free choice fed, used as a drench or as a top dressing incorporated in the feed, and which has as one of its primary ingredients, propylene glycol. It has heretofore been recognized that propylene glycol can be an effective carrier for minerals and other supplements, see for example, Talbot, U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,887, issued May 13, 1983. However, what has not heretofore been appreciated or, as far as the inventor is aware, ever known, is that a synergistic occurrence happens when a feed supplement containing propylene glycol is made in the special manner in accordance with this invention.
The synergistic result is that such a feed supplement is effective for significant reduction in lot adaptation stress. If the same ingredients are mixed in a manner not in accordance with this invention, for example, simply lumping all of them together, the adaptation stress reduction in a short period of time is not achieved. While not wishing to be bound by theory, it is believed this result occurs because of the increased metabolic utilization of the nutrients which have been individually premixed with the propylene glycol.
Accordingly, a primary objective of the present invention is to provide a method for preparing a feed supplement which when administered will significantly reduce lot adaptation stress.
Another objective of the present invention is to prepare a feed supplement which when fed, corrects the pathology of the systems of the rumen microbe population, as well as the pathology of the livestock's own system, in such a manner that the host animal is quickly returned to an economic producing animal, in the shortest time possible.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a lot adaptation feed supplement which aids in quickly reestablishing the symbiotic relationship that exists between the microbes of the ruminant and host ruminant animal.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a livestock feed supplement which not only is effective in reducing lot adaptation stress during the initial days after an environment change, but also which provide continuing benefits throughout the entire finishing period, with a showing of significant economic benefits.
The method and manner of accomplishing each of the above objectives will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention which follows.